How to decide you can afford children?

Question

My husband and I have been married 6 years— our whole adult lives we’ve been together and we’ve recently decided to go back to college to finish. We have nice vehicles and bought our first home in 2016. However I have baby fever. My husband says he wouldn’t mind having a baby if we could afford it. We don’t go without and we get what we want for the most part material wise. But how do you decide you can afford it? Like did any of y’all have a money goal before deciding to TTC? My mom told me “you will never be able to afford children, you just do it” but my husband is afraid of that. What do I do?

Answer

Just make sure you can afford daycare if you’ll be needing it. That’s the biggest cost when it comes to baby. Also having adequate health insurance is important too. Other than that you’ll just figure it out.

Answer

I agree with your mother 😂 
Its amazing how you can change your money management when you have a new priority lol

Answer

We didn’t wait until we could afford kids. We’ve always made it work. It’s about what you want. If you guys are getting by and are able to afford some extras, you can afford a baby. There will be sacrifices at times but it’s worth it. And if you guys are doing well now, if you do get pregnant, you have 10 months to save up. It’s not that expensive in the beginning to have kids. I say if you want kids but you’re waiting until you can afford it, you will probably never have kids. You will always find a way. It’s about priorities.

Answer

You just manage ❤️ you do what you have to so your child gets the best of everything. Xx

Answer

We decided it was the right time due to us being able to live off one income and still be able to do the activities we want. Being able to stay on budget was huge. 
My husband is an engineer so he puts everything in a spread sheet, I’m sure he had a goal as to how much we had in savings to be able to afford everything a baby needs without help from family or friends.

Answer

Financially I am in the same situation as you. We went from living paycheck to paycheck to being able to afford what we want when we want. To me that means I can afford to raise children. I can fluctuate my lifestyle if that means my kids are well taken care of. I don’t need fancy things, I want to be a mom above all else. But as the others say, you’re never 100% financially prepared. Even if you think you are, you don’t know what could happen so you just have to decide what comfort level is best for you.

Answer

I promise you...there will never be a time in your life where you make that decision based on how much money you have saved away. It will never be enough. People are in worse situations then yourself and they make it work.

Answer

This exact problem held my husband up for quite a while. It took seeing his brother make half as much money as he did and have a baby and be happy for him to realize that it's not about how much you make. You'll never be 100%financially ready. We lived VERY comfortably before baby with both of us working, now we still live comfortably, just a little bit more frugal as I'm not working, we bought a house, and started a business. It's completely doable, just keep the conversation open at the end of the day because if he truly sees how much you want a baby and how much you're willing to work to be able to "afford" that baby he will come around. He wants to make you happy, even if that means eating chicken a couple extra nights a week instead of steak. It's all worth it when that tiny little baby stares up at you for the first time. 😍

Answer

I guess my husband is afraid that we wouldn’t be able to afford the childcare and insurance. Insurance for dependents at my job is like $300-400 a month. Definitely money we need so that’s what I’m concerned about.

Answer

We’re fairly well off financially and I still worry if we can afford our 3rd baby. I’m due in April, so I guess it’s too late for that 😂 Your biggest expense will be daycare! Our kids transfer to a neighboring district so we will always have an education expense. Honestly, other than that, I don’t feel like our kids have cost us that much 🤷🏼‍♀️

How to decide you can afford children?

Let’s Glow

Glow is here for you on your path to pregnancy

25+ million

4.8 stars

20+

Getting Pregnant

Pregnancy

1st Year (Baby & You)

Baby Products